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Calm beginning for what will be a frenetic finale

Willy Mason opens the Gentlemen of the Road concert on Francis Field Friday evening, September 13, 2013. By DARON DEAN, daron.dean@staugustine.com

The Sun sets behind a giant screen showing a performer on the first day of the Gentlemen of the Road music festival in St. Augustine on Friday, September 13, 2013. By PETER WILLOTT, peter.willott@staugustine.com

People gather in front of the main stage on the first day of the Gentlemen of the Road music festival in St. Augustine on Friday, September 13, 2013. By PETER WILLOTT, peter.willott@staugustine.com

Concertgoers listen to Thao & The Get Down Stay Down on Friday at sunset on Francis Field. By 8 p.m., about 10,000 fans were on the field for the Gentlemen of the Road stopover. Mumford & Sons will headline the event at 8 p.m. today. By RENEE UNSWORTH, renee.unsworth@staugustine.com

The crowd at the first day of the Mumford & Sons Gentlemen of the Road Stopover was as eclectic as the recorded music that boomed from the stage before Willy Mason, the first act, began to play.

Etta James was played alongside reggae and a little bit of country.

And the crowd was mixed with families and couples young and old, and young hipsters, some mustachioed and others with flowers in their hair, suspenders and bandanas.

For Bob and Debbie Wilson of Flagler Beach, the Gentlemen of the Road Stopover was another notch in their vacation belt. They had been to Destin and Orlando, where they saw Steely Dan in concert, before heading to St. Augustine for the Stopover.

“Mumford & Sons brought us to the festival,” Bob Wilson said as he sat on the grass next to Debbie. “We just have fun and stay hydrated,” he said.

It was a calm beginning to the first day of the St. Augustine Stopover, which is expected to bring around 25,000 people to Francis Field. Traffic flowed easily on U.S. 1 after 4 p.m. as the crowd began to gather outside and inside in clusters under trees and near concession stands.

A series of Stopover flags flanked part of Cordova Street next to the parking garage. People lined up to get their concert passports stamped by one of many volunteers who held “stamp” signs outside and inside the venue.

People found their own ways to show their Mumford spirit.

Gina Blevins of St. Augustine brought along a special pair of sunglasses for the event. Suspended from the spectacles was a plastic mustache. She said she got them when she heard Mumford was coming.

Around 5 p.m., people lined up for beer and souvenirs and took pictures with The Strongman, a structure of the top of a man’s head and an arm holding dumbbells. It is 30 feet high and has internal lighting.

The show was expected to bring people from all over the country.

Kate McBride came from the Minneapolis area to see the show. She sat on a towel not too far from the towering arm of the Strong Man sculpture. She wore a shirt with a red double-decker bus and lettering that read, “Mumford & Sons.”

She got it at the show they played in St. Paul, she said.

“I haven’t been this crazy about a band in a while,” she said.

It was McBride’s first time in St. Augustine. She came to the concert with some friends and their daughters. She wanted to see them near Minneapolis, but there was no Gentlemen of the Road Stopover nearby. She signed up to come to St. Augustine, and then Mumford & Sons came to St. Paul for a show last week, so she got to see them twice.